Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | "Billy, they don't like you to be so free..." | Content
 | This 1973 movie is Sam Peckinpah's last western. It's noteworthy for Bob Dylan's appearance in the movie and for the soundtrack that includes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Kris Kristofferson plays Billy the Kid as a sort of refugee rock star, but somehow it works. James Coburn, once called the "Jesus of Cool," plays Billy's old friend and now enemy, Pat Garrett. Modern times, in the form of railroad corporations and "big" government, seek to replace the freer "good old days." Garrett, caught between the rock and the hard place, is forced to track down his old friend. As the opening song says, "Billy, they don't like you to be so free." Like "Major Dundee," this is a flawed classic that was cut up by the studios. But it still bears the director's occasionally brilliant and often eccentric touch, and for that reason alone is worth seeing. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 05, 2005 | | Summary | Director's Cut Still a Muddled Mess | Content
| I saw this movie many years ago, in the non-director's cut. So much to like, the gritty realism, the shades-of-gray nihilism that separates the law from the outlaw, as well as the strong acting of James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Oh, and that beautiful, sad, soundtrack written and performed by Bob Dylan. Even his acting was half inarticulate, half art. However, the editing and flow of scenes was so choppy as to border on incoherent. A local video store still had the video copy of the Director's Cut, so I recently rented it to see if the new edit improved this film. Unfortunately, it did not. In fact, some scenes were arguably made worse. This is still a muddled mess.
After the initial setup of who Pat Garrett and William Bonney were, the movie lapses into a muddled series of scenes where sometimes we don't know who is who, where we are, and where we are going. Two of the worst include the scene in the bar where Pat has Alias take away the barkeep's shotgun and pull his hat over his head, then read off the labels on the cans on the shelf while Pat plays cards with the other henchman. The other is when the John Beck character (Poe) shakes down the doddering old ranchhands for information about Billy the Kid. Why would they all of a sudden talk, and give factual information? And why, after telling the ranch-interest toadies where they can stick their advance on the reward, does Pat allow Poe along, even after Poe admits to Pat over a campfire that his loyalties are not with him?
Oh, by the way, Jason Robards is playing some relatively obscure general, the military governor of the New Mexico territory, not any general you might know. I only figured that out in the following scenes, and checking the credits.
The first of the two scenes arguably made worse in the Director's Cut was when Billy escapes and turns the sadistic deputy's shotgun (wadded with half a roll of dimes) on him. I recall the slow-motion of the devastating coin shrapnel shooting out of the shotgun to be more drawn out in the original version. The second is the death scene of the Slim Pickens character (Sheriff Baker). The best song on the soundtrack ("Knockin' on Heaven's Door") is truncated, and the lyrics removed, in this version.
The final indignity suffered by the audience is that Mr. Coburn's distinctive and gritty voice has been so overexposed from his work doing Chevy Truck commercials, that when Pat Garrett rounds up the posse to go after Billy, you almost expect him to round the corner and jump in a Blazer or Tahoe.
Unless there is yet another Director's Cut awaiting release on DVD, the flaws in this one are probably why the studio may view a new release as unmarketable. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 25, 2005 | | Summary | The Greatest Western of All | Content
| I have been a fan of westerns (and movies dealing with "historical" America) all my life. Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" is the most realistic, yet beautifully poetic western ever made. Few people acknowledge the historical accuracy of this film. I have read the historical accounts of "the Kid's" last days, and most scenes- and some of the dialogue- are taken directly from history. Yet the true magic of this film comes from the heartbreakingly beautiful sense of melancholy that permeates the film, from the exquisite cinematography of the New Mexican landscape, right through the characters, who realize that the American frontier has at last bumped up against the Pacific Ocean. The wild and wooly times, and the people who lived through them, are fading fast with the light of day. The veteran western actors in the film, one and all, give the most heartfelt performances of their careers, sensing as they did, that the golden days of the genre they'd loved and nurtured were as doomed as the characters they portrayed. Add to that one of the most haunting soundtracks ever recorded (and one of Bob Dylans finest works), and you end up with a true American classic. Peckinpah's masterpiece. You can close your eyes and smell a New Mexican afternoon thunderstorm, gunpowder, horses...
Just make sure your watching the "Director's Cut", and not the studio butchery. Also, cast your vote with the studio to get this great film lovingly adapted to DVD. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 31, 2005 | | Summary | A contrarian view | Content
| I've been reading these reviews with amusement if not outright laughter. This movie is dreadful. It goes beyond camp. It's not the Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, Major Dundee, or Ride the High Country.. all directed by Peckinpah. Don't get caught up in the cast...Chill Wills and Jack Elam are good. You have to like "THEATER" to appreciate Jason Robards. However, Kris Kristofferson is an actor whose zenith was as "Mace Montana" in "Big Top Pee-wee". His performance was a work in progress... He should has stayed with the song writing or flying copters for uncle sam...
To like this film, you must be personally related to the cast or crew... |
| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2005 | | Summary | Reasonably accurate; beautiful film | Content
| Regarded as an accurate as well as artistic re-telling of Billy's life and times (from about the time of the Lincoln County Jail bust-out onward), Peckinpah's masterwork also presents a rich allegory about the encroachment of the Establishment into 1880s New Mexico and 1960s America. Bob Dylan's "Alias" role serves as a manifestation of Billy's "inner voice," the spirit of unspoiled New Mexico, and as well the personification of the rebellious youth of the 60s and 70s; all three personae are destined for a broken heart. Until Eastwood's "Unforgiven," this film was the only important western since 1966's "The Last Gunfighter." Watch this film and you will love it. At its end, you will probably have an unjustifiable admiration for the real William Bonney. However, your nostalgia for New Mexico, untouched by money and the hooves of cattle, will stand on solid ground. |
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